The self-taught chef from Freedom, Maine, Erin French, did not have an easy road to success. As a businesswoman and single mother, the proprietor of The Lost Kitchen restaurant, which started as an illegal supper club run out of her flat, has battled depression, addiction, and grief. Learn more about Erin French’s Rehab and struggles here.
The chef spoke about her long and occasionally uncertain journey from line cook to successful entrepreneur, whose dinners routinely sell out as diners flock to taste her culinary creations from far and wide, while discussing her memoir, “Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch“. Let’s find out in detail about her journey and get inspired.
How did she get into depression and addiction?
She intended to study medicine while attending college at Northeastern University, but at age 21, she found she was pregnant. She finally opened the first location of The Lost Kitchen after moving back to Maine and starting a new career in the food industry.
French was a single mother who raised her kid Jaim and learned to cook in her parent’s kitchen. In addition to that, in 2010, French wed a drunken, violent boat builder who was old enough to be her father; as her fame shone brighter, the already unstable marriage broke down.
She fell into profound depression as a result of the marital breakdown and the stress of running her restaurant, and she developed a drug addiction to the medications her doctor prescribed to treat it. Later she went to rehab to fix herself up.
She says the final night of the service was a turning point that resulted in a violent fight between the French and her husband. She ended herself in treatment after being on the edge of suicide.
He terminated every employee of the Lost Kitchen, shut it down, and altered the door locks while also claiming custody of French’s son. French believed she was completely lost.
She battled sadness and anxiety, and she took medications like Xanax and Ambien to help her deal with what became her addiction.
Life after Rehab
She entered a treatment facility in 2013 and became sober, but her battle was far from done. French discovered that her husband had secretly closed their restaurant and changed the locks a few days into her two-week treatment. She describes it as being similar to the awakening experience when you discover all of your anxieties are real.
French was forced to relocate to a cabin on her parent’s property due to debt, divorce, and a custody case over Jaim with her ex-husband.
She began cooking for people after converting an old Airstream into a mobile kitchen, then started throwing pop-up dinners at farms and orchards across the state, with food that was sourced from the nearby fields and barns, channelling her supper club background.
After a year, there was a chance to start a new restaurant in Freedom, in a renovated gristmill.
Erin’s restaurant now has become one of the most difficult restaurants in the nation to reserve a table at. As reservations became out of hand, she made the decision to request postcard entries for a table lottery.
She receives more than 20,000 cards annually. Currently, she is married to Michael Dutton, whom she met on a match.com.